Hello all my group just bought this game. I was wondering what expansions and/or adventure packs I should get. Also your opinion on four player mode?

well remember first that to get the smaller adventure packs you need to have the deluxe expansion first. so to get any of the dwarrowdelf cycle (redhorn gate etc.) you need khazad dum first

however the core set acts as the deluxe set for the mirkwood cycle (emyn muil etc.) so you can buy those packs straight away in any order

the packs available are (in order)

hunt for gollum

conflict at the carrock

journey to rhosgobel

emyn muil

dead marshes

return to mirkwood

khazad dum deluxe

rehorn gate

road to rivendell

watcher in the water

long dark

foundations of stone

shadow and flame

hobbit saga I

there are also 2 event special quests that are not proper packs but were brought out after the event as print on demand, these are

massing at osgilliath

battle of lake town

the order doesnt really matter unless youre a theme player like myself and others who love the story or you want to play as the game came out

the difficulty levels very much and the stated difficulty levels arent very good at gauging how hard they are and if youre playing 4 player then this changes the way the game works, and some quests are more 'linear' and less enjoyable than others

i would recommend just going through as the packs came out, this way you dont miss any key cards such as the song cards which are key for multi sphere deck building

the main races developed in mirkwood cycle is eagles and rohan, the main races developed in dwarrowdelf are dwarves and ironically noldor

then we have the first hobbit saga pack which along with part II (not yet out) makes a special release that you dont need anything other than the core set to play…..they are quite difficult so i would not recommend getting it straight away

then coming up this month we have a new cycle starting which is heirs of numenor concentrating on gondor and its fiefdoms

the most i have played with is 3 players so cant comment on 4, but i know some quests are harder with more players, some easier….in general i think they are easier with more

rich

I've played with 4 players and as rich said: some quests become easier other difficult.

One example of a quest that becomes difficult is Massing at Osgiliath - it's very very difficult with 4-players.

The Kazad-dum quests are more easier with 4-player than with 2-player.

I, like rich, recommend that you buy the packs in the order that they were released, so you don't miss some important cards (songs, Boromir, Radaghast,etc)

Hobbit is a expansion that you should leave aside for now. It has is own mechanics and some cards that aren't usable in the other packs.

Hmm. I don't think I have the money to go out and buy all the packs. Also I am not in to building super competitive decks only one that has a good theme and a fair chance of defeating the scenario. I would be more interested in the fun and theme of the expansions than in the goodness of the cards they contain. So which do you think I should buy if I'm just looking for some fun? The hobbit sounds cool but you think it would be too hard? why is this?

walkinstube said:

well it doesnt change me recommending you not get the hobbit…..if you get it just after core the chances are you will not be able to win it for a very long time (not a reflection on your ability, its just desgined with the current card pool in mind) so i would not recommend buying that as unless you like loosing, it will be very frustrating

the reason it is so hard is that if you take a look at early enemies and locations and compare the to the hobbit enemies and locations, there is quite a difference in power….the cycle before hand had some great player cards in, so it needed to be rather harder than earlier packs

without some of the key 'power cards' from earlier packs, you will quickly become overran by enemies and threat

HFG is both fun and themeatic….i play this game mainly for theme and so on, and this is one of my favourites

there isnt really any packs that are best in the sense that they will give you a good amount of powerful card….i think you will need at least 3 packs to get a decent card pool up and running

check out cardgamedb.com to see which cards are in which packs

i think the most fun ones in the mirkwood cycle are hunt for gollum, conflict at the carrock and the dead marshes

if you want anymore advice just ask

rich

I think what I will do is just take it slowly and buy maybe one pack a month. It'l fit my budget but also means I will never catch up!

Buy from miniaturemarket.com. There you get the packs for $10 and the delux for $20